dislike ↠ draco malfoy

fifty-three

The next day, I stumbled down into the Great Hall for breakfast. There were large bags under my eyes from lack of sleep. After my nightmare, I had tossed and turned the rest of the morning and had not gotten anymore sleep.

I sat down at the Slytherin table next to Draco and spooned porridge into my bowl.

Carmen, who was sitting across the table, stared at me. "You're back?" she asked in surprise.

I threw up my hands. "I'm back."

"I missed you so much," she said sincerely.

"I miss you too," I replied.

Draco looked over at me. "Sleep good?" he asked.

"Fine," I lied, taking a sip of orange juice.

He looked at me warily but didn't say anything else.

"What class do we have first?" I asked.

"Dark Arts," Pansy said from across the table. "With Professor Carrow."

I sighed. "Are you serious? My first class back and it's with one of the Carrows?"

"It's gotten worse, too," Carmen said. "We've been practicing awful spells.." she glanced down at her wristwatch. "Speaking of class, we should probably head there. It starts in seven minutes."

I forced myself to swallow some more porridge and stood up. "Let's go."

It took a few minutes to walk across the castle to class. We sat down in our seats. Professor Carrow wasn't in the room yet. I pulled out my wand and fiddled with it.

The doors swung open and Carrow strode in. He was clutching two first-year students by the collars.

"Why are they here?" I whispered to Draco.

"I don't know," he muttered, his face pale.

"Welcome to class," Professor Carrow drawled. He pulled the first-years to the front of the class and let go of them. They both remained still, their eyes filled with fear. "Today's lesson will be..." his eyes traveled around the room, "very fun." He smiled maliciously.

"That doesn't sound good," I mumbled, a lump forming in my throat.

"Today," Professor Carrow announced, "we will be practicing the Cruciatus Curse."

"But that's illegal," I said.

He turned toward me. "Ah, yes, Miss Hastings, you are finally joining us in this class. I've already established that whether a spell is legal or not doesn't matter in this class. We're practicing it, so don't question it. And don't talk without raising your hand."

I bit my tongue anxiously.

"Everyone take out your wands," Professor Carrow said. "I want you each to try."

"I'm not going to do the Cruciatus Curse," I whispered to Draco. "He can't make us, right?"

Draco looked at me grimly. "Yeah. He can't make us."

Professor Carrow approached the first-years and put a hand on each of their shoulders. "These are our test subjects. Misbehaving first-years. You will be practicing the Cruciatus Curse on them."

There was a murmur around the class. Mostly, everyone looked horrified at the idea of doing that, but Goyle, Crabbe, and some of the other Slytherins looked eager.

I looked at Draco, my eyes widened. "We can't do the Cruciatus Curse on first-years!" I exclaimed in a whisper.

Draco gripped the side of the table. "Yeah... that's just sick."

"Now, I will select people to go." He looked around the classroom. He pointed at Neville. "How about you, Longbottom? Stand up and practice the Cruciatus Curse on these kids."

Neville stared at him with resentment burning in his eyes. "I'm not doing that," he said firmly. "No way."

"I'm not asking you, Longbottom," Carrow sneered. "I'm ordering you to."

"I'm not torturing innocent kids," Neville shot back.

"They're not innocent," Professor Carrow replied. "They both did things to deserve detention."

"Well, knowing you," Neville said, "they probably didn't even do anything that bad to get a detention."

Professor Carrow slammed his fist on Neville's desk. "I'm telling you one more time. Get your arse out of your seat and use the Cruciatus Curse on them."

Neville put his face closer to his. "No."

Professor Carrow flicked his wand and a large gash appeared on Neville's cheek. I gasped as Neville clapped his hand over his cheek, trying to stop the blood.

"You can see Madam Pomfrey after class," Professor Carrow said. "Now—"

"Can I go, sir?" Goyle exclaimed eagerly.

Carrow looked at him. "Sure, why not?"

"Goyle," Draco hissed. "You're not seriously going to do that?"

"Of course I am," Goyle replied. "It sounds fun. Watching first years cry in pain."

Draco shook his head in disbelief as Goyle pulled out his wand and walked to the front of the class. He stood in front of one of the kids. He was a Hufflepuff with light brown hair and wide, fearful brown eyes. He was so small that Goyle was practically four times his size.

"We have to do something about this," I said. "We can't let Professor Carrow get away with this."

"Who are we supposed to go to?" Draco hissed. "Snape's not gonna do anything about it. This school has been overrun with Death Eaters."

"Let's go to McGonagall," I whispered.

"She doesn't have any power," Draco replied.

I turned back around as Goyle said, "Crucio!" and pointed his wand at the boy.

Goyle grinned as the boy screamed and fell to the floor, twitching in pain. I squeezed my eyes shut and looked away.

"Excellent, Goyle," said Professor Carrow. "Ten points to Slytherin. You can sit down now. Who else wants to have a go?"

I turned back around. The little boy was still on the floor, rocking back and forth and whimpering in pain.

"I'll go next!" Crabbe said, raising his hand.

"Good, come up."

Crabbe jumped out of his seat and approached the other boy, who was a slightly taller Ravenclaw with black hair. "Crucio!" he exclaimed.

I looked away again as the boy screamed. Draco reached under the table and gripped my hand in his.

The bell rang, which signified class was over. "Alright, good work today. Ten more points for Slytherin, Crabbe. Class dismissed," Carrow said and grabbed the two boys by the collar, dragging them out of the classroom.

"That was awful," I said. "We should have done something to stop it."

"There was nothing we could have done," Draco said.

I looked over at Neville, who was still clutching the bleeding gash on his face. "Neville!" I said. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," he replied. "It's just a little cut."

"I don't know, Neville, it's pretty big..."

"It's fine, Evangeline. Really. Scars are cool anyway."

I nodded. "Okay. I hope it gets better."

"First day back and it's already rough," Draco muttered.

"Yep," I said, crossing my arms across my chest.